Financial Advisor in Fort Lauderdale, FL

You can earn a good living and still not know when you will be able to stop.

The income is strong. So are the bills. The house, the insurance, the cars and the tuition all come out of the same place. Whatever is left may end up in a 401(k), an IRA from a job you left years ago, a brokerage account or more cash than you meant to keep in the bank.

If you work for yourself, it can be harder to see. There may be no company retirement plan in the background and no automatic contribution happening every two weeks. What gets saved depends on what the business earned, what the household needed and what was left when the year was over.

Eventually all of those accounts and decisions have to answer the same question. What does this add up to, and what will it let you do?

We start by looking at what you earn, spend, own and owe. From there, we work out which decisions come first. The portfolio is built after those answers, not before them.

When Can You Stop Working?

Most retirement targets come from a rule of thumb. Save a multiple of your salary. Plan to replace a set share of your income.

A rule of thumb does not know what your life costs.

We start with your actual spending. Some of it ends when work ends. Some keeps going, including property taxes, insurance and the upkeep on the house. Travel may cost more in the early years. Health care may cost more later.

If you stop working before 65, you also need health coverage until Medicare begins. That cost belongs in the plan from the start, not as a surprise in the first year.

Then we look at where the income will come from. When should Social Security start? Which accounts should you draw from first? How much tax will each withdrawal create, and can some of that income be moved into lower-income years?

Those answers depend on each other. Claiming Social Security later means your savings have to pay more of the bills in the early years. Drawing from an IRA first changes the tax bill in the years before required distributions start.

Put those choices together and you can begin to see when work becomes optional and what you can spend after it does. That is the core of retirement planning.

When You Work for Yourself, Nobody Is Doing This for You

There is no benefits department making sure you signed up. No automatic contribution happens unless you created it. In a busy year, retirement planning can become one more thing you meant to get to.

Then the year ends.

The business did well, but the extra cash is still sitting in the business account. Or you moved some of it home without deciding how much should be saved for retirement, how much belongs in reserves and how much will eventually go to taxes.

The next year may look completely different.

Broward County has more than 376,000 businesses with no paid employees, according to Census Bureau data.

If yours is one of them, you have to make decisions an employee rarely has to think about. Which retirement plan fits the way you earn? A one-participant 401(k) and a SEP IRA work differently, and the better choice depends on how much you earn, whether a spouse works in the business and whether you expect to hire.

Then there is the money itself. How much should you put away after a strong year? How much needs to stay in the business in case next year is slower? How much of the balance in the business account is actually available to spend?

We look at the business and household together. The retirement contribution has to work when business is good without leaving you exposed when it is not. The cash reserve has to have a purpose. And the retirement plan should fit the way you actually make money.

We go further into plan choices in making a 401(k) work harder when you own the business.

Should the Mortgage Be Gone Before the Paycheck Is?

You may still have a mortgage payment on the day the paycheck stops.

Paying it off can feel like the safe choice. It removes what is often the largest fixed bill and lowers what your savings have to produce each month.

But the source of the payoff money can change the answer. A large withdrawal from an IRA or 401(k) is taxable income in the year you take it, and it can push you into a higher bracket for that year. Money moved into the house is also harder to reach if you need it later.

So we compare the interest rate on the loan, what the money would likely earn if it stayed invested, which account would fund the payoff and what tax that withdrawal would cost. We run those numbers alongside the decision about which accounts to draw from first.

Then the Investments

By now, we know what the money has to do.

Some may need to cover the first few years after work ends. Some may not be touched for twenty years. If you own a business, part of your financial life already depends on one company. The investment portfolio does not need to make the same bet twice.

That gives us a reason for what goes where. How much needs to stay available? How much can remain invested for years? How much risk does the plan actually require?

A 401(k), an IRA, a Roth account and a taxable brokerage account are taxed differently. An investment that makes sense in one may make less sense in another.

We start with what you already own. Positions with large gains can be expensive to sell, and a good investment does not need to be replaced just so the statement looks different.

The plan comes first. Our investment management carries it out.

Working with Holland Capital

Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.

The first meeting is mostly questions. What is happening now? What are you trying to reach? Which decisions have to be made first?

You do not need to arrive organized. If you run a business, bring what you know about it. We will sort out what matters now and what can wait.

Your CPA and attorney stay in their roles. When the plan reaches into a tax return or a legal document, we work with them so everyone is using the same numbers.

The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.

Our Florida office is in Winter Park. If you are looking for a financial advisor in Fort Lauderdale, we can work together without your adviser being down the street. Most meetings are by video or phone. When it makes sense to sit down together, we can meet by appointment at the Regus center at 110 East Broward Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Holland Capital does not maintain a branch office in Fort Lauderdale.

We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.

Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Photo: Ianaré Sévi / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.